The Evolution of Our Camping

Having just spent three months in South Texas in our motor home, I began to think back on our camping and RV experiences.

As a child, I don't remember our family ever "going camping".  We went on quite a few vacations but we always stayed in a motel or rented a cabin.  After I grew up and left home, Dad and Mom did get a travel trailer and spent a great deal of time traveling.

When I married Louise, our first vacation together was a camping trip.  We had moved to the Detroit area because of my job and decided to go camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We rented a tent, bought a lantern and portable cook stove, and took off.  It was one of the most memorable trips of our life!

Later, after we had returned to the Tulsa area and started having children, we did quite a bit of camping, starting with tents and camping with our friends, Richie and Leann and Grover and Barbara.  We soon graduated to an old Ford van which we used for a while, then an overhead camper in the pickup truck.

Eventually, we acquired an old 22' bumper pull travel trailer and pulled it all over the United States, including a trip to Virginia to see our old friends, Jerry and Marlene.  In 1986, we were part of the group which purchased Tulsa Winch and sold the travel trailer for two reasons: first, we needed the money, and second, we weren't going to have any time to go camping.

At this point, I was reasonably sure that our camping or RVing days were over.  In fact, my standard comment on camping and RV's was that I would do all my future camping at a Holiday Inn.  After my retirement in 1998, however, that changed.

Some friends who were RV'ers said something about us going on some trips with them.  I thought it might be wise to rent an RV to see what it was all about.  After I checked some prices for rentals, however, I decided I didn't want to do that.  We wound up buying a used Sprinter fifth wheel trailer from a couple who were giving it up.

The Sprinter was a good trailer but you couldn't stand up in the bedroom.  To exit the bed, the person closest to the front of the trailer had to crawl over the other person.  We also decided that we needed more room.  This was about the time we started going to South Texas in the winter and, when you spend three months in an RV, you appreciated all the space you can get.  We traded the Sprinter for a brand new Everest fifth wheel.

We pulled the Everest all over the U.S. for several years and had a great time in it.  I was towing it with a 1999 International and it was a good looking combination.  Eventually, the International grew tired and I was faced with the prospect of replacing it.

In about 2010, Louise and I decided to try a motorhome instead of a trailer.  We traded the fifth wheel off on a used Holiday Rambler bus and used it for about five years.  Last year, we traded the Holiday Rambler off on a Tiffin Open Road with four slides.  It has more room than any RV we've ever had and we are really enjoying it.  In fact, we just returned from Roaring River in Missouri where we spend a week.

I don't know how long we'll be able to continue to RV but, for now, we are gonna go every chance we get!

Vacation, 2013

I know that this is kind of like breaking out the vacation pictures and forcing everyone to look at them but our just-completed trip was a hoot and I want to tell you about it.

For the past several years, we have gone to Colorado to escape the summer heat but, for several reasons, we decided this year to go to Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The National Forest Service in Colorado has gotten "stinky" about camping in their campgrounds, to the point of making us decide to go somewhere else.

When we started talking about the U.P, our friends, Mary and Luther, indicated that they would like to go with us.  We decided to leave on July 17.  We got the motorhomes ready and prepared for the trip.  Our first stop was to be Wallace State Park in Missouri and that was the "kickoff" of our trip.

Our next stop was Clear Lake, Iowa.  For "rock and roll" fans, you know that this was the site of Buddy Holly's last concert before his death in a plane crash.  He, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson ("The Big Bopper", were killed when their plane left Clear Lake.  A side note is that Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup who were also members of the band but were not on the plane that crashed.  Many years later, we had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Allsup in Mannford; he was a friend of a good friend of ours, Faye Carroll.  We also toured the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa, and got to watch Winnebago motorhomes being made.

Our next stop was Minneapolis where we went to the largest shopping mall in the United States, Mall of America.  Luther and I weren't thrilled with it but Mary and Louise were.  We also paid a visit to the nearby IKEA store which is amazing.

The next stop was Duluth, Minnesota.  Although I had been there on business several times, I had never been impressed with the city.  Being on vacation was different, however.  We found a campground right on the water.  In fact, our motor home was backed up right to the water on the pier.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the parade of "tall ships" come through Duluth.  We were close enough to walk from our campground to the channel to see them.  These are mostly replicas of the sailing ships of the 1700's and 1800's.

From Duluth, we went to Grand Marais, Minnesota for a couple of days where we camped in wilderness area.  We took a side trip while there to Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Then we were off to Copper Harbor, Michigan, a peninsula in northern Michigan.  We spent four days there and the scenery was beautiful.

From Copper Harbor, we went to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for three days.  A highlight of our visit there was a boat tour through the Soo Locks and back through the Canadian side.  Once again, we were parked in an RV park right on the water.

After leaving the Soo, we went to St. Ignace, Michigan.  St. Ignace is a tourist town on the north end of the Mackinac Bridge and is a ferry ride away from Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Island is a famous tourist spot and is known for its lack of gasoline powered vehicles.  Everything on the island is "horse driven".  By the way, "Mackinac" is pronounced "Mackinaw" - I don't know why, it just is.

After we left St. Ignace, we spent a couple of days getting to Elkhart, Indiana.  Luther and Mary's motor home was made in Elkhart and we took a tour of their factory.  We also had some good Amish food to eat there!

After a couple more leisurely days of driving through Illinois and Missouri, we got back home on August 16. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation.  I must admit that Luther and I both did some minor body damage to our motor homes but all that can be fixed!

OK, I promise you I won't do any more of these vacation rambles until the next trip!